Wishful Thinking
by Jazzy D
Summary: Both Muggle and Magical society know it as: 'the end of the world'. Suffice is to say, it possibly is. Amidst this, three young people prepare themselves for the worst: Fleur's and Bill's wedding. This summary sucks, the story is better so read it! RnR!
1. The Darkness

Author's notes: Greetings to all of you who are reading this. This is my first (posted) fic and I do hope that it is up to the standard of the wonderful authors and readers on this website. With that, I would just like to say, please be gentle! I sort of based this on a Bollywood movie I had watched at my friends (Yes, there were subtitles!) but made more sense of it. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Guess what happened today? Go on, guess! Yes! That's right! JK just gave me the rights to Harry Potter! So I am now the sole owner of HP! … … … Okay, so she didn't… but I own the plot and imagination behind this story and that's as good as it gets.

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A dark grey cloud stretched across the sky, as far as the eye could see. There was lightening, shortly followed by thunder. The world was – literally – dark. It mattered not whether you were in France or Hiroshima or in a local park in London; the darkness was still there.

Amidst the darkness – in a small park – lay three friends; relaxed and calm, greatly contrasting those around them. People were panicking and the majority of the population were becoming paranoid. Their theory that the world was going to end, however, was not far from acceptable in both the Muggle and Magical societies.

The three people lying in the park stood out as much as the sun would, were it shining that day. The silence between them was there since their arrival in Little Manor Park and wanting so badly for it to end, Ron sighed loudly. Understanding fully well his intentions, Hermione turned towards Harry and spoke.

"Harry, we brought you here for a reason beyond getting fresh air. To be honest, we really came out here to talk to you about…well about everything really. You've been so quiet since you've been at the Burrow and both Ron and I are worried about you…"

"There's no need to be," Harry replied, "I'm fine."

"You don't look it, mate," Ron, turning to face him, put forth as an argument worthy enough for a reason to Harry's depression. "I mean, you look really pale and you haven't eaten much and, to be quite honest, mate, I think you're going through an early menopause."

This crude joke was applauded quite literally by Hermione, who had hit Ron across the head muttering: "You're so facetious!"

"Listen, I'm fine really…and Ron, you're jokes get worse every day, I swear. I'm not taking you to Godrick's Hollow if you intend to crack stupid jokes." He feigned a smile and walked of murmuring "I'm gonna walk around for a bit…" Hermione had risen to follow him but Ron grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Leave him," he said, "I think I've caused enough damage…" Hermione hit him again.

"Ow! Was that totally necessary?"

"Ron, what made you think a joke would cheer him up? What, in that tiny, little mind of yours, made you think that he would laugh at such rubbish?"

"Hey," Ron pulled his hand away from her arm, scowling, "that was harsh…'tiny, little mind'…"

Hermione sighed and knelt down on the grass.

"I'm worried about him…" she said. Harry had been incredibly quiet the past four days, he had been eating very little and alienated himself from everyone in the household. She frowned at his retreating figure. "I really am…"

"I'm worried too," said Ron, "but maybe he'd be better off on his own for now… he knows we're his best friends and we're there for him when he needs us. I guess right now he doesn't so we'll leave it to him to tell us when he does." Hermione smiled lightly and turned to face Ron who was rubbing the back of his head. She giggled.

"Sorry about that," she said. Ron looked up at her and glared.

"I'll bet you are. You'll be even more so when I get pay-back…"

"And how do you intend to do that Mr. Weasley?" Hermione asked, regretting she had said anything as Ron knocked her down and began tickling her mercilessly. Laughing, she attempted to push Ron off her but to no avail; he had gotten much stronger since he had been playing Quidditch for Gryffindor.

"Ron! Get off me!" He didn't. He did stop however, smiling down at Hermione.

"It's quite amazing how we can have fun when our best friend's suffering," he said.

"Like you said, when he needs us, he'll tell us. He never said we weren't allowed to have some fun…"

_What AM I saying?! Harry needs us whether he thinks alike or not! _

But gazing into Ron's eyes prevented her from helping Harry. She lay there, staring into the ocean that was Ron's eyes unaware that he was slowly leaning towards her. His lips were only a few inches away from hers when a loud roar of thunder caused both of them to jump, startled. Having what could have been a beautiful moment ruined, Ron got up and Hermione suggested they go find Harry and return to the Burrow.

Not far from the gates of the park, the two had found Harry.

"There's a storm brewing, we should go," he said looking up at what once was a summer sky. The others nodded and they made their escape from the muggle world back to the magical.

Not that it made much difference.

Both were doomed to turmoil eventually.

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Author's Notes: Reviews much appreciated, even flames. Just please note that flames will be used to roast marshmallows and possibly the deeds to the flame-ers house/apartment/bin. No, I'm joking! ) Or am I? Hmm, that's something to consider.

Anywho, more romance and action to take place in the next chapter…I just felt it a decent place to end.

Well, TTFN! Until the next chapter lovely people!


	2. House Cleaning

AN: Right, so here's chapter 2, the previous chapter being rather crappy as I wrote it at 1 in the morning as an attempt to put myself to sleep… you can tell it did. Anyways, I hope this one is much more successful than the last. Especially since I've edited and re-edited it about six times now… Please note, that if you see something completely and utterly random, I wrote that in because I had nothing else to write…ignore it :D

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own HP. HP sauce. Any reference to the delicious sauce I tend to use for bacon sandwiches is not an infringement on any copyright laws HP may or may not have.

(Bursts into tears)

Okay, so I don't own HP sauce either! By gum, could my life get any more sad? Let's face it; I own nothing but the hands that type this and the brains that think this.

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Upon their arrival back at the Burrow, the trio had numerous tasks thrust upon them; Ron and Harry had to de-gnome the garden for the second time that week and Hermione was requested to help in the kitchen with Molly and Ginny.

"Oh what fun this will be, eh?" said Ron, sarcasm emitting from every inch of his mouth.

"Mm…" was Harry's reply.

"Come on Harry…I'm your best mate, you've gotta tell me what's up at one point and it'd be better to tell me now so then I won't bug you about it later!" Ron argued, grabbing a gnome by the nose, yanking it up, spinning it above his head and chucking it across the garden.

"Ron, I really don't want to talk about it…it's stupid…_you'll_ think it's stupid…"

"Honestly, Harry…you need to come up with better excuses…what could be more stupid than one of these things?" Ron asked as he grabbed another poor, helpless gnome, dangled it in mid-air for emphasis, and hurled it out of the premises, flicking his wrist at the end, causing it to spin on it's flight into the tree. Harry sighed as he threw a gnome across the garden and watched it walk around, tipsy.

"Fine…" he looked over at Ron with a frown on his face, "it's…it's everything…you know how sometimes, you get hit on the head or something and you don't feel it till much later?" Ron nodded, now rubbing his head for some unknown reason to Harry. "Well yeah…that's it…I've been thinking about everything and it's all just hit me…everyone puts their life on the line for me…and you two are willing to do that for me…I don't want that…I can't handle another life lost all because of me…that's why I broke up with Ginny…"

"Oh yeah…she mentioned that…she was crying before you came." Harry groaned.

"Great…more to add to my large amount of guilt!" Ron frowned.

"Look, Harry, if we want to protect you, that's up to us isn't it? Why should you worry about it? It's our lives; you're concern should be of your own. We told you: we're here for you through it all. We'll stand by you forever, mate. Even if saving you means us dying, we'd gladly do it."

"But I don't want that!"

"Well we do! Well…we want you to be safe even if it means we die." Harry sighed yet again, knowing that Ron wasn't going to stop until he convinced Harry "Get over it, Harry! There are loads of people out there that are willing to risk their lives to make sure you live to defeat _Him_ so it's your duty to be strong and stay alive! Your duty is not to worry about us; that's our job, okay?" Ron sounded somewhat frustrated yet his eyes conveyed sympathy.

Harry was silent for a moment; contemplating what had just been discussed. He looked Ron in the eyes and it was evident that determination was set in Harry's.

"You've just got to promise me one thing," he said.

"And what's that?" Ron asked. Harry smiled at his friend in a way that showed the bond they had.

"Stay alive." Ron smiled as well and extended his hand. Harry grabbed it and shook it.

"Deal."

Silently, they got on with their work and within an hour, they had cleared the garden.

"Good job, mate!" Ron said, clapping his best friend on the back

"You did a pretty good job yourself," Harry said, grinning at their triumph over the gnomes.

"Well, that was fun…" Ron stated, looking down at his hands and frowning. They were stained with drops of blood as a result of taunting the gnomes. He looked up and at the backdoor which Hermione had just appeared in, smiling and holding a tray with glasses of water on them.

"Perfect timing, Hermione," Ron said, strolling over and grabbing a glass of water. Hermione began looking Harry up and down and her smile grew as she saw his.

"I heard your little talk…" she said, indicating to the open window of the kitchen where they found Molly Weasley dabbing at her eyes with tissue. Ron had a strange feeling she wasn't peeling onions.

"Ron's right," she said, "we're willing to sacrifice our lives for you, therefore, you shouldn't worry about us." Harry sighed, exasperated, and rolled his eyes.

"As long as you're willing to _not die_, I'm fine by it!" he said smiling.

"Of course," Hermione answered with a small laugh.

"Have fun cooking?" Ron asked as the conversation, yet again, lacked any actual conversation.

"As much fun as you did tossing gnomes," Hermione said, looking down at his blood stained hands. "Please tell me that's your blood and not the gnomes'." Ron rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, don't worry it's mine," he replied. Hermione took his hands and at this, Ron blushed. She looked up at him and noticed his crimson-stained cheeks.

"Oh, don't be so childish…" she said, looking down at their hands in concentration as she began to blush also. She took out her wand, and with a flick, the blood was gone.

"Thanks…" Ron murmured, looking at his now clean hands.

"No problem," she said, smiling. An awkward silence fell upon them.

"Well, seeing as we're done here, maybe we should go help out your mum?" asked Harry a few moments later who was attempting to suppress his smirk. Attempting and failing. Ron nodded and smiled as the happily reunited trio departed for the kitchen.

"No no no _NO_! You boys will go and clean the fireplace! I want it looking immaculate before our guests start popping in and out of it!" shrieked Molly as Ron explained their plan to aid her in the kitchen. He groaned at this.

It took 2 hours of scrubbing the fireplace walls and several hundred queries of "Why are we doing this?" before half of it was finished. It was by the end of those hours that Ron had begun banging his head profusely on the wall. Harry glanced at him worried but continued to clean. Ron continued to damage his head.

"Err…the fireplace won't really get any cleaner with you hitting your head against the wall…" commented Harry.

"D'you know how they _would_? MAGIC!" Ron yelled angrily, more to himself than anyone but with a flick of his wand and a mutter of "_scourgify_" and the wall was clean.

Ron was glaring angrily at the fireplace and murmuring insults at it. Harry burst out laughing and began rolling on the floor. Ron raised his eyebrows at him but sunk onto the floor in exhaustion.

"Two hours…and I could've cleaned it up in two seconds!" He threw his hands into the air in frustration.

Hermione had just walked in, curiosity on her face and amusement in her eyes.

"I see you had fun cleaning. By any chance, did you boys work up an appetite?" she asked, smiling as Ron's eyes lit up.

"Diner's ready!" he sang, joyfully, springing up on to his feet and skipping happily to the kitchen. By the time the others had joined the Weasley diner table, Ron was no where to be seen though perhaps he was hidden behind the mountain of food piled onto his plate.

"'Work up an appetite'? Hermione, that boy is _all_ appetite!" Harry said, rolling his eyes thinking that Ron could not possibly see beyond the food.

Ron said nothing and stared lovingly at his mother's cooking. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Hermione eyeing him.

"What?" he inquired. She smiled, but raised an eyebrow.

"You look at that food with more lust in your eyes than hunger," she replied.

"And?" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Oh nothing, Ron. It just makes one wonder if there's room in your life for more than food," she stated, rolling her eyes yet again as Ron seemed to completely ignore her and pile more food on to his plate. He was hungry and he couldn't help it if his attention had to go to make room for his appetite. In between mouthfuls, Ron would look up and see Harry just staring at his plate and then glancing quickly at Ginny who was sitting at the opposite end of the table. He frowned at the two; though he was not happy about his best mate dating his little sister, he was the only one he trusted.

He looked over at Hermione who was watching him and smiling.

"Seriously, what?" he asked, getting slightly frustrated. _And it better be a damn good reason to interrupt my eating! _Hermione rested her chin in her hand.

"Where do you put it all?" she asked, almost intrigued yet sounding somewhat disgusted. Ron sat back and pondered on this for a moment.

"That's a very good question…" he said and started looking at his arms for any flab. He found nothing and so pinched his cheeks, grabbed his thighs and wriggled in his seat to find any evidence of fat storage. He lifted his shirt and looked at his stomach. Quidditch had really done wonders for him; if he had flab, it would all be abs now. He poked at it but it seemed pretty solid to him. He looked up at Hermione who was staring intently at his bare abdomen. She bit her lower lip, unaware that Ron was laughing quietly.

"Would you like me to take the whole shirt off?" he whispered in her direction. Hermione, snapping back to reality, shook her head and turned back to face her food, blushing furiously.

Through the rest of diner, all was silent in a rather eerie way. Harry and Ginny were unusually quiet; Ron had a suspicion that it was about the break-up and so pursued to question Harry about it afterwards.

Looking into the fire as they all sat down in the living room of the burrow, Harry replied with a nod and Ron decided to leave it.

They all departed for bed early that evening; the chores had tired them out.

_It's odd really…but I guess mum's right…cleaning does cheer people up! _was Ron's last thought before dozing off to the land of nod; dreaming unusual dreams of mops, brushes and gnomes.

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AN: Bad ending I know… Don't expect any updates anytime soon; I have much coursework to do. Hence the reason this was late. And took bazoinkages. Although, the next chap might be up sooner than expected as I have written most of it… Anyways, I feel this was much better than the last chapter but I'd love to hear your views!

Thus,

Review, review and review!

Adieu!


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